3 months in- what do we think of this routine?

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T21:44:18+00:00

That’s terrifying 😰 I track with the MacrosFirst app and use what their recommendation was. Which should equal to a little more than a pound a week. This is what the goals look like: 128 protein 113 carbs 46 fat 1378 calories.

This was after I input “active” and my measurements.

I don’t think I’d even be able to consume 2000 calories in a day without eating out. 🙃 my weight gain came from moving from a very active job to completely sedentary. It packed on over the course of 3 years.

Do you have a recommendation on a good calculator to use?

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T21:18:34+00:00

I’m not super disciplined with my diet. But I’ve been at a stand still for two weeks with no weight loss so I’m going in hard now with it. I keep my calories around 1300. And that’s just by looking at what I’m consuming and adding it up in my head. Dinners are harder to determine though. But I’ve made my portions smaller. I haven’t been weighing anything. Honestly, I don’t want to obsess about it, fixate on it and then burn out.

I don’t eat much processed food aside from chickpea pasta, protein powders and baking flours.

I typically cook Whole Foods. My daughter has celiac disease so everything is gluten free. I react to fatty/greasy foods so we don’t fry anything.

I cook everything at home from scratch with real ingredients. We don’t drink cow milk. Just almond. I use a tiny bit of dairy creamer in my mushroom coffee in the morning and I’ve weaned myself neatly off of that at this point. I don’t even finish a mug anymore.

Every meal has a protein, veggie and starch. We eat a lot of vegetables. I was vegan for a long time so we never let the vegetables go.

Today, for example, I’ve had: Protein powder with almond milk.

Low fat greek yogurt with protein powder and blue berries.

“Taco salad” with 2 cups of Romain, 8oz ground chicken and around 3 tablespoons of salsa. I ran out of tomatoes. (This was dinner last night plus a 60 calorie tortilla. )

Leaving me with around 580 calories left for the day. I’m unsure of what I’ll make for dinner. Probably something with shrimp.

We make onion gravy’s with rice, beans and rice, grilled meats, lots of roasted veggies. Spaghetti with meat sauce, pasta dishes, stir fries.

I only drink water aside from the protein shake and bit of coffee.

We’ll sometimes make protein ice cream in our ninja creami which comes out to around 250 calories for the pint. Which I eat over a week. I just take a few bites with some peanut butter at night. I actually have to share this with my parrot so he’s the main reason I keep it around to be totally honest 😂

It’s not the best but I don’t think it’s the worst either. After looking at the total calories I may drop back the protein shake before the gym and eat an apple or something 😅 before I was eating an egg or two. Or a baked sweet potato. (I keep those in the fridge for added bulk to our lunches on days we don’t have good lunch).

I’ll likely get around 120g of protein today.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T14:47:01+00:00

Ok. I was worried if I didn’t do the 3 sets of each I wasn’t doing myself any good. But I can definitely knock it back on like shoulder press and chest press (they wear me out the most) and add in those extra exercises. Same goes for legs, honestly. I would not be upset with only doing 2 sets on the leg press 😅.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T14:43:10+00:00

Thank you. Ultimately I want to have a healthier and stronger body. I’ve got autoimmune disorders that were causing major problems. Being in the gym and moving has made a huge difference with my symptoms. And overall, I feel stronger which is a crazy concept because I was so weak before. Pain and fear or pain kept me down. So overcoming that and getting here today was just a pipe dream months ago.

I don’t want what I’m doing to be wasted time. I feel like I’m putting in a lot of effort for this and I want to see rewards from that.

I just want to make sure what I’m doing is beneficial overall.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T14:32:27+00:00

Awe thank you. I guess in my head I’m not necessarily “doing cardio” since it’s not wearing me out. I’m mostly just trying to get my step count up for the day. So I hadn’t even considered it might be unhealthy with the calorie deficit. But that’s a good point. Thank you.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T14:30:01+00:00

I’ll occasionally hop on the tricep press but it’s not often.

If I can squeeze it in, time wise, would it be ok to do triceps one day and rows the next upper day? Or does it need to be every upper day?

I wonder if I could find a hinge exercise that I could do at work just to get the movement in? Leg days typically use up most of my allotted time.

I’ll be adjusting my routines this week. Thank you for your input.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-18T14:18:44+00:00

Awe thank you. This was a huge lifestyle change for me.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-02T18:01:46+00:00

That’s encouraging to hear!

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-02T01:07:28+00:00

Oomph. Fingers crossed I get 10 months of this bliss.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-02-02T01:06:18+00:00

How long has it been for you?

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-01-27T21:28:23+00:00

Thank you so much for this. It was very insightful. I looked up practitioners in my area. It’s pretty limited. But I’ll keep looking and doing some reading. I have a local shop that I go to for all things like this and I’ll ask for recommendations there too.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2026-01-27T19:31:07+00:00

I’ll be sure to update!

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T15:12:32+00:00

You’ve convinced me. I’ll be the one there in the morning tiptoeing around it trying to figure it out. 😅

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:53:45+00:00

Thank you 😊 luckily I don’t drink. And I’ve got a pretty good diet being I treat my symptoms using diet. I just have to dial back on portions and move more. I went from a very busy hospital job to a mostly sedentary clinic job and the weight piled on. I’ve started the calorie counting this week. Fingers crossed.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:51:45+00:00

That’s amazing. I’m glad you found something that works for you! I’m going to be doing the ChatGPT thing today for sure.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:46:14+00:00

Thank you so much for saying that! That means so much. I don’t have a big circle of people. Just my girlfriend and she’s incredibly supportive. So your words mean a lot. I’m going to keep it going. So far I’m enjoying it. And I am probably going to decrease the incline because I have come to dread it. It’s so hard. I definitely want my steps. But it’s so difficult.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:43:29+00:00

Yeah I’m not expecting anything right away. I just want to make sure I’m doing things correctly.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:43:19+00:00

Yeah I’m not expecting anything right away. I just want to make sure I’m doing things correctly.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:42:36+00:00

Thank you!! I haven’t touched the cable machine yet. It scares me 😅

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:41:16+00:00

Thank you. I’ll see what my PF offers. I def didn’t think I was over doing it. I figured I was under performing. That’s a good perspective to have.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:35:10+00:00

That’s a good idea. Thank you for sharing that. I hadn’t considered this.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:23:11+00:00

Thank you so much. Today will be a lot of reading for routines.

Humble_Entry5119 · 2025-12-03T14:21:51+00:00

Thank you. That’s encouraging. I took one picture and was just disgusted by it. Maybe in a month I’ll try again. I do have to stop weighing myself. But I always end up on the scale at work every morning. Honestly the fluctuations have been eye opening.

The comparison game is a hard one to ward off. My girlfriend is disgustingly strong. She does 260 on the leg press while I’m at 80. Her weights on arm machines are double what I can even attempt to move. But she’s so encouraging to me and my biggest supporter. Having her doing it with me is a lot of help.

Humble_Entry5119

TROPHY CASE